Mick Hartley

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That Nice Mr. Bin Laden

Observer reader Christopher Leadbeater knows what Al Qaeda really want:

After 9/11, al-Qaeda did spell out their aims. They wanted to stop the killing and abuse of the Palestinian people by Israel with US support, in defiance of international law for more than 50 years. They wanted to stop the sanctions on Iraq, imposed by pretending Iraq represented a threat. A million Iraqis had been killed by sanctions. They wanted US troops out of Saudi Arabia. They wanted justice for the native peoples of Chechnya and Kashmir.

Can it be long before someone nominates Bin Laden for the Nobel Peace prize?

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2 responses to “That Nice Mr. Bin Laden”

  1. james Avatar
    james

    The sanctions on Iraq are gone, and the US are leaving Saudi Arabia. These root causes are disappearing at a rate of knots.

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  2. James Avatar
    James

    Christopher Leadbetter is making it up. Al Q did indeed set out their goals – in 1996. Only one of CL’s invented aims is there – the removal of US troops from Saudi Arabia. But this is to take place in the context of the reestablishment of Islamic world hegemony, and specifically the recreation of the Islamic Caliphate in Europe, Africa and the Middle East. Significant omissions, and ones that I suspect would conflict with Leadbetter’s own politics – and thus their omission, presumably.

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